Fight The Good Fight!

St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Pastor Mark Gartner

Sermon for Lent 1 -- Febraury 25^th, 2007

Luke 4:1-13
^{1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
^{3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
^{4Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’"
^{5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
^{8Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’"
^{9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written: "‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; ¹¹they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’"
^{12Jesus answered, "It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’" ¹³When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.}}}}}}}

Dear Children of God.

Theme: Fight The Good Fight!

1. Jesus calls us into his army

2. Jesus trains and equips us for the fight

3. Jesus leads us into the fight

AS we look at this familair account from Jesus’ life, we might gloss over the story as another one of the those great thigns Jesus accomplished during his short life o nthis earth. But to truyly grasp the significance of this text, we neeed to ask ourselbves what was at stake when Jesus met the Devil in the wildeness? We know that he was our Champion, our Substitute and our Savior. As we look at this account from Jesus life we need to look back to the first Adam who had fallen prey to schemes of the devil and had plunged all of mankind into sin. WE need to remeber that all mankind was being held in the prison of fear and death. Now today we see the second Adam coming to fight once agai nthe devil. Jesus the second Adam had come to free thsoe who were being held as proinsoitrs of fear and eath. He came to win freedom for all those held in sin.

The Devil also knew what was at stake. He knew that if he could lead the second Adam to all like the first Adam, he would forever hold mankind in his grasp. He knew that all he nneeded to do was lead Jesus to trip up at just one little sport and the vistory would be his. And at the same time, we know that Jesus understaood what was at stake. Not long before this the Holy Spriti had descended on him at this Baptism and he was filled iwth poewr and might. He rembers his Heavenly Father calling down from heavne that he was the one sent from heaven. He knew that he was sent by his Father to do the work of defeating our enemy hte Devil. Jesus also knew that goign into the woildenedd for 40 days was goign to be another battle which would determnined the fazte of the all mankind. What if he would have failed and lost?

We who ahve been called to faith by the Holy Spriti have been also called to take up th fight against the Devil and his evil forces. There are no examptions. You don’t have to wait until you are a certain age. All of God’s childrlen are enlisted and need to be ready to fight. We are in God’s aramy, brecaue for most of us at our Batpism the Holy Spriti filled us iwth the trust and power to know that we will be ina battle agaisnt eveil all our days on thois earth. WE know just as Paul knew that our battles are not against earthly physical enemiies, but against all the powers of this sin-dark world.

Are we aware of what is at stake as we join God’s aramy? Do we recognize that every day we are on this earth, we are ina fight for our ertnal salvation? As American we are ina fight agaisnt the evils of terrorism, we undertand what is at stake. If we lose this battle, we stand to lose our freedoms. But to lose our freedom to terroists, is small compared to what will hjappen if we lose the battle agaisnt he devil. We will lose the peace that comes from knowing our sins are forgivnen. We will fall under the rule of the tyrannt we all knowas the Devil. Taht is why we once again need to fight toi fight with all our might.

2. Jesus trains and equoips us for the fight

It was only a few short years agao that we sawthose startkling pictures of our tanksand aramies rolloling through thecity of Bagdad as the evil regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled. In a way I think that we as Americans let a falsoe optism come over us. We thoguht the battle would be done a few months and peaceand freedom would be in place in Iraq. But have realeased how tough the enemy actaully was as we still are waging the war to win freedom for the people of Iraqq. As strong as our aramies are, thereare no easy battles. As we look at our battle agaisnt he devil, we need to realize that will enver be easy in our fight agaisn the Devil. Taht is why we need to have te best trraing and weaopns that God has to offer as we enter into this fight.

Let’s take a look at the power of our eenmy hte Devil as we can see from our text. The Devil is very tricky. He picks out the wekest fromt and he will try any method of attack that mgiht work. We alos need to know that he is not eaisly discouraged. He will keep coming. Our text tells us that Jesus had fasted fro 40 days in the wilderness, and after 40 days he was hungry. The Devil was quick to smell blood i nthe water and came to him with a simople request, ^"The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Waht a subtle temtaption this was. If are truly the Son of God then why would you alwllow yourself to be hungry. Show me you are hte Son of Man and use a little bit of youtr power to turn those stones into bread to eat.